(Fall/04)
Instructor: Heidi Grasswick
Office: Twilight Hall 312
Phone: ext. 5662
E-Mail: grasswick@middlebury.edu
Office Hours: Tues/Thurs 10:45-11:45; Wed 2:00-3:00
Class Meetings: Tues. 1:30-4:15 Chellis House
Course Description
This seminar is designed to prepare majors in the Women's and Gender Studies program for senior work. It also serves as an advanced reading seminar for other students with course work in Women's and Gender Studies. The class will explore how the category of gender shapes academic scholarship across the disciplines and informs public debate over women's issues. What themes, research goals, and problems unify the work of Women's and Gender Studies across the disciplines? How is the category of gender related to other categories of identity and/or social location such as race, class, sexuality and nationality? We will begin by focusing on key concepts in feminist theory. The latter part of the course will take up particular topics, while drawing on various disciplinary frameworks.
This course will be run in seminar format. In addition to familiarizing you advanced material in Women's and Gender Studies, one of the goals of the course is to give you experience in a small seminar context, developing your analytical and discussion skills accordingly. Thus, we will investigate the readings together, using the insights of each other to further both our understanding of the authors and our understanding of the problems at hand. We are all responsible for the quality of the course; each of us must come to class having already put thought into the issues at hand, prepared to articulate and discuss these issues. On particular days, you will be asked to lead the discussion. Additionally, during the latter part of the term, you will give a presentation to the class based on your research for the final paper.
Texts
•The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory (ed. Linda Nicholson, Routledge 1997) (SW)
• Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research (ed. Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook, Indiana Press 1991) (BM)
• Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, andThird WorldFeminisms (Uma Narayan, Routledge 1997) (DC)
• Nine Parts of Desire (Geraldine Brooks, Anchor/Doubleday 1996) (NPD)
• The Mind Has No Sex (Londa Schiebinger, Harvard 1989) (MNS)
• additional texts TBA
•Supplementary/ Recommended text: Contemporary Feminist Theories (Ed. Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones, New York University Press 1998) (CFT). Available through netlibrary, and will be placed on reserve.
• Additional readings will be made available through Electronic Reserve (ER)
The password to access materials on electronic reserve for this course is:
5399hg
Course Requirements
1. 2 short analysis papers (4-6 pp.) 40% Due Tues October 12th
and Fri November 12th
2. Term Research Paper 30% Due Fri December 10th
Paper topic Due Tues October 19th
Prospectus and Bibliography Due Tues November 2nd
3. Class Presentation 5% last two weeks
(based on your research paper)
4. Class Participation 25%
Late Policy: All assignments are expected to be handed in on time. Late papers will be subject to grade lowering (usually 1/3 letter grade per day), unless an extension has been granted ahead of time. Extensions will only be granted in exceptional circumstances, and must be arranged prior to the due date.
Class Participation: Being a seminar style course, class participation is very important and class attendance is mandatory—each class represents a significant portion of the course. Therefore, it is particularly important that you speak with me (preferably ahead of time) if you will be missing any classes. If necessary, we can make arrangements for you to do some additional assignments to make up for excused absences from class discussion. Notes from classes missed should be obtained by talking with other students.
Class participation, of course, involves more than just attendance. In order to be an active class participant, you need not always have something to say. But you must be an attentive listener of others in the class, and be ready and willing to contribute to class discussion when you feel you do have something to say. Especially in a seminar style class, we all share the responsibility of making our class time as productive as possible. The class participation component of this course also includes some written preparation, usually in the form of preparing questions or response papers for particular class meetings, and submitting closing remarks for each class.
Communications: This class has an email list associated with it, which we will use regularly.
**You are asked to submit "closing remarks" to the class via email within 48 hrs. after each Tuesday meeting. To send a message to the class, address it to:
WAGS0400a-f04@middlebury.edu
Notes Relevant to the Course
As a student at Middlebury, you are responsible for understanding and following the norms of academic honesty. In regards to this course, in which writing forms a major component, concerns of plagiarism are particularly relevant. Please review the statement on plagiarism in your college handbook. If you have any questions about plagiarism, including whether or not something would constitute plagiarism, please see me. *Please note that every formal written assignment requires a signed statement of the Honor Code* (This does not include response papers--they are considered informal writing).
Students with disabilities who require accommodations in meeting course requirements should meet with me early in the term to explore possible options. Students whose first language is not English—if you need some extra assistance with the reading and writing assignments, please see me early in the term to explore possible options.
WAGS 400
Class Schedule
(subject to adjustments: please keep informed)
wk 1
Sept. 14: I: Introduction
Intro Sections Nicholson (SW)
Beauvoir (SW)
Firestone (SW)
-reading questionnaire
wk 2
Sept. 21: II: Feminism and Marxism
Rubin (SW)
Combahee River Collective (SW)
Barrett (SW)
Nicholson (SW)
Hartsock (SW)
Recommended: Hartmann (SW)
Wk 3
Sept. 28: III: Categories and Subjectivities
Wittig (SW)
Alarcon (SW)
Riki Anne Wilchins "Why Identity Politics Really, Really Sucks" (ER)
Irigaray (SW)
Alcoff (SW)
Spivak (SW)
Wk 4 IV: Method and Methodology: Doing Feminist Research
Oct 5: Fraser (SW)
Gilligan (SW)
Fonow and Cook "Back to the Future" (BM)
Collins "Learning from the Outsider Within"(BM)
Mies "Women's Research or Feminist Research" (BM)
Jayaratne and Stewart "Quantitative and Qualitative Methods…" (BM)
Recommended: -Addelson "Man of Professional Wisdom"(BM)
-Collins in SW
Wk 5
Oct. 12 *note class scheduling to be arranged for break schedule adjustments
Joan Scott "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" (ER)
Taylor and Rupp "Researching the Women's Movement" (BM)
V: (U.S.) Legal Frameworks:
- Wendy Williams (SW)
-Martha Minow: selections from Making All the Difference(section "Dilemmas of Difference" esp pp 19-23 and 40-48) (ER)
-Kim Crenshaw "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex" (ER)
-Pascoe "Sex, Gender and Same-Sex Marriage" (ER)
Tues Oct. 12th : First Paper Due
Wk 6
Oct.19: VI: International Feminisms
-Dislocating Cultures
-Dixon-Mueller "Women in Agriculture" (BM)
-RCIW "Women and Food Security" (Nepal booklet) –distribution means to be be announced
Research Paper Topic Due in class Oct. 19th
Wk 7
Oct. 26: Dislocating Culturescont'd
Nine Parts of Desire
Wk 8
Nov 2: VII: Science, Technology and the Body
-The Mind Has No Sex
TuesdayNov. 2: Prospectus and Bibliography Due in Class
Wk 9
Nov. 9: -Bordo selections from Unbearable Weight
-Dion Farquhar "Feminist Politics or Hagiography/Demonology: Reproductive Technologies as Pornography/Sexworks" (ER)
-Additional readings TBA
Friday Nov. 12: Second Paper Due
Wk 10
Nov. 16: Woman at the Edge of Time
Wk 11
Nov. 23: No Class: Work on your Research papers
Wk 12
Nov. 30: Haraway "A Cyborg Manifesto" (ER)
-Readings related to class presentations (TBA)
**Class Presentations**
Wk 13
Dec 7: **Class Presentations cont'd**
Conclusions
-Messer-Davidow "Know-How" (Academic Knowledge and Social Change) (ER)
-Richardson "Sharing Feminist Research with Popular Audiences" (BM)
**Final Paper Due: Friday, Dec. 10th